Indian PM to attend two summits in Indonesia

Indian Prime Minister left for Indonesia on Thursday to attend the 9th India-ASEAN Summit and the 6th East Asia Summit in Bali.The Indian Premier will meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is hosting the Summit.He would also have the opportunity to meet other world leaders such as the US President Barack Obama and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.In a statement prior to his departure, Singh said "increasingly, political and security issues are becoming part of the East Asia Summit agenda. There are concerns among the countries of the region over issues relating to disaster management, maritime security, terrorism and other non-traditional threats to security. I look forward to an open, frank and productive discussion on all these issues." He added "the level of our engagement with the ASEAN as a group and with individual ASEAN Member States has gone up qualitatively in the last few years. This is reflected in the areas of trade and investment, capacity-building, connectivity, people-to-people and institutional linkages. We have agreed upon an ambitious India-ASEAN Plan of Action for 2010-2015. I will review the implementation of the Plan of Action with the ASEAN Leaders." In his second leg of foreign visits, the Indian Premier will also pay a bilateral visit to Singapore. This would be Singh's maiden visit to Singapore as Indian Premier. "Singapore is a key partner for us in the region. India's "Look East" policy started with our engagement with Singapore, and that country has been among the strongest advocates of greater cooperation between South East Asia and India," he said in his statement. He further stated "Singapore is our largest trading partner in ASEAN, and the second largest investor in India. There is a large and vibrant Indian community in Singapore, including several Indian companies and students. I look forward to holding wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong."